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Rock Shoes: Red Chili Coronas

I’ve been wearing Red Chili boots on and off now for about 5 years. I guess that shows that I like them. They fit my feet, perform well, and last long enough to be economically viable. The new Corona VCR’s (VCR stands for Velcro by the way) are no exception. I’ve been testing them out as much as possible over the last 6 weeks, mainly indoors due to the shocking weather, but also on occasion out on the grit, and importantly, a 5 day trip to Cresciano in Switzerland before Christmas.

The rubber is as good as any other Chili boots – a good all-rounder. They are pretty stiff in the toe meaning that slabby smears are not their strong point, but they work nicely on positive small holds. The two Velcro straps, despite being a little on the long side, are positioned to give the boots a really snug fit. This means that the heels work really well for a Velcro boot. There’s a curious triangular piece of rubber that sits on top of the toes which is aimed at stiffening up the toe box. Not only does it do this, but it actually gives you something with which to grip when attempting devious toe hooks! Add to this the extra rubber along the sides of the arch and there’s a lot of rubber with which to climb! So far the extra rubber hasn’t lead to extra pungent odours.

They have two pull-loops on each shoe, offset to either side of the heel making pulling them on straight forward. One feature that I have noticed is that the rubber on the base of the heel is very narrow. I presume that this is in an attempt to save weight, but it has the side effect that it’s fairly easy to roll my ankle when walking about between problems – I’m sure ladies used to wearing high heels would have no such problems! The black, white and red colour scheme has attracted a number of comments down at the wall, all of them positive.

All in all a decent all rounder which replaces the X-Cube, but not recommended as a flexible smearing boot.